1. Technical Field
This application relates to optimizing data less writes for restore operations.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer systems may include different resources used by one or more host processors. Resources and host processors in a computer system may be interconnected by one or more communication connections. These resources may include, for example, data storage devices such as those included in the data storage systems manufactured by EMC Corporation. These data storage systems may be coupled to one or more servers or host processors and provide storage services to each host processor. Multiple data storage systems from one or more different vendors may be connected and may provide common data storage for one or more host processors in a computer system.
A traditional storage array (herein also referred to as a “data storage system”, “disk storage array”, “disk array”, or simply “array”) is a collection of hard disk drives operating together logically as a unified storage device. Storage arrays are designed to store large quantities of data. Storage arrays typically include one or more storage array processors (SPs), for handling requests for allocation and input/output (I/O) requests. An SP is the controller for and primary interface to the storage array.
A storage array may be thought of as a system for managing a large amount of a resource, i.e., a large number of disk drives. Management of the resource may include allocation of a portion of the resource in response to allocation requests. In the storage array example, portions of the storage array may be allocated to, i.e., exclusively used by, entities that request such allocation.
Data storage systems, such as disk drives, disk storage arrays, network storage devices, storage area networks, and the like, are called upon to store and manage a significant amount of data (e.g., gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes, etc.) that is written and read by many users. Storage arrays are typically used to provide storage space for a plurality of computer file systems, databases, applications, and the like. For this and other reasons, it is common for physical storage arrays to be logically partitioned into chunks of storage space, called logical units, or LUs. This allows a unified storage array to appear as a collection of separate file systems, network drives, and/or volumes.
A host processor may perform a variety of data processing tasks and operations using the data storage system. For example, a host processor may perform basic system I/O operations in connection with data requests, such as data read and write operations.
Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage device containing a plurality of host interface units, disk drives, and disk interface units. The host systems access the storage device through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage device and the storage device provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage device directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may not correspond to the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage device unit allows the host systems to share data in the device. In order to facilitate sharing of the data on the device, additional software on the data storage systems may also be used.
Presently, there is a trend toward the use of larger operating systems, larger applications or programs, and larger file sizes. Understanding this trend, a storage administrator is likely to request the provisioning (i.e., allocation) of a larger portion of storage space than is currently required for an operating system, for example, with the expectation that the space requirements will grow with upgrades, bug-fixes, the inclusion of additional features, and the like.
In recognition of the fact that more storage space may be provisioned for operating systems, programs, and users than can actually be used at first, the concept of a sparsely populated logical unit (LU), such as a “thin” logical unit (TLU), was developed. Unlike the more traditional fully allocated logical unit, which is created by fully provisioning an entire initial amount of storage area, a sparsely populated logical unit is provisioned at creation but is not allocated any physical storage until the storage is actually needed. Specifically, a TLU resolves this problem by allocating the storage space (e.g., making the memory space physically available) as it is needed when (or shortly before) data is written to the TLU. A TLU is created from a common pool of physical space and starts with minimal amount of physical space. As the application that is using the TLU starts to demand more storage, the TLU incrementally requests the storage space from the common storage pool in portions referred to as slices.